Summer roads
POSTED IN Travels 20.06.2009
Summer is here and we have headed for the roads once more.
We spent last weekend in the East of Iceland, going to Borgarfjörður Eystri and exploring the area, finding out there still was too much snow to be able to hike up to the mountains to photograph.
But it made us promise to head out there again later this summer.
In Borgarfjörður Eystri there is an area down by the sea where you can go and observe seabirds, noteably puffins which have turned the hills into swiss cheese style of landscape; full of holes.
It provides people with a good opportunity to observe the puffin without having to
crawl over the ground and hide; the birds are used to people and will sit quietly a few feet away from you while some take the plunge into the blue seas to bring in the catch of the day.
But we werent there to photograph puffins, but to have fun and relax, to scout out places to go when we’d be there again later for photographing.
The following texts are taken from the official webpage of Borgarfjörður Eystri.
Formerly, the church Bakkagerðiskirkja stood at Desjarmýri, the present building being consecrated in 1901.
The church boasts an exceedingly remarkable altarpiece, painted by Jóhannes Sveinsson Kjarval in 1914.
Christ is depicted during the Sermon on the Mount, standing atop Álfaborg with the Dyr Mountains in the background.
This piece is one of Kjarval’s most famous works, with most tourists visiting Borgarfjörður coming to look at it.
The Cross in Njarðvík Scree.
Varying sources recount the origin of this cross. In short, according to the story of Naddi in the folk tales of Jón Árnason, a farmer from Borgarfjörður had to go to Njarðvík and on his way ended up fighting with Naddi, who was “an evil spirit in the shape of an animal above waist, but of a man below.” He was called Naddi because of the gnawing (nadda in Icelandic) sound he made while moving. Naddi and the farmer wrestled for a long time, but after having solemnly sworn to raise “a monument to honor the Lord’s protection,” the farmer managed to heave Naddi into the sea. From then on there’s been a cross beside the road, renovated at the middle of this century.
On the cross there’s an inscription in Latin reading as follows:
Thou that walks by, please kneel and revere this reminder of Christ. Anno 1306
-We made it safely 
Thank you for this interesting tour of Iceland. Liking your blog posts.
Bara að segja hæ!
Hæhæhæ!!!